Virgin London Marathon 2011 First Timers

Good idea Mike

and a wonderful cause you are running for - hope your Dad's OK. He will be very proud of you.

My name is George and I am running for ACORNS HOSPICE  ( and plan to be dressed as Buzz Lightyear )

My motivation is to raise as much money for Acorns, who cared for our Granddaughter, Emily .

Sadly Emily died the week before Xmas in 2006, aged 6 , we will never forget her or   ACORNS who gave our family so much wonderful support

Hi all

Its my first time at the VLM and im running for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Im not able to run at the moment - will getting over injury from my last challenge in June, the Nokia Windor Trtiathlon. I hope im going to be okay soon so I can get started. Any advice for tendon injury gratefully accepted...

Hope everyones elses training going well

It's great to hear everyone is running for such worthy causes.  It certainly gives me some extra motivation knowing that my running is going to help others.

I am injured at the moment too, i have hurt my IT band and lower back and my osteopath has banned me from running until the end of the month.  I am finding it a struggle not to exercise (never thought I'd say that a year ago).  I'm just a bit scared that I will lose too much fitness and have to start from scratch.

 How is everyone elses training going 

Thanks for the advice vds and I agree with Kate - you should definately go for it!  How far are your LR's at th moment? 

Sorry to hear you are suffering too Kate - at least we are getting our injuries out of the way before the hard training starts

I think i'm going to go for a walk in the forest in a bit with my 3 years old, I am going stir crazy indoors as my hubbie is away for the weekend.

 Anyone up to anything exciting this weekend?

Hi Claire

well im at work all weekend but would rather be out running !! am aiming to go to the gym after work and do a 3 mile run . will be the 3rd run of the week with two days in between rowing 7000 metres each session . hope your injuries get sorted soon , must be very frustrating

has everyone set up their FETCHEVERYONE profile ? I mentioned a while back on here , is a good site where you can log all your training and worth a look at .

well done vds , must be feeling good after breaking the 20k barrier

Went out at 7 this morning before work for a 4.3 mile run , bit chilly up here in manchester but enjoyed being out that early with no one else about , something quite satisfying knowing everyone else is in bed as your out getting the run done .

I use Fetcheveryone site to log my training , is a good site and easy to use , can also log your plan on there which i did yesterday and its daunting looking at the next five months and nearly every other day has a scheduled run

Long run done this morning (if you call 6 miles a long run?)

Just ticking over nicely, doing 15-20 miles a week, just waiting for the 16 week runners world training plan to kick in.

I always do my long runs early on a Sunday Morning, prefer to run when it's quiet, although not sure how long this will last for when the cold & frosty mornings arrive!

Re Mikes message:-  Andy, running for Heart UK, I am 40 next year and so a bit of a challenge to complete before I hit 40. Also family suffer from hereditary High Cholestral and hence Heart UK.

Hi everyone!

Another lovely day.. bit cold.

Long run(12 miles) this morning but had a bit of a wobble... altho when i went out it was ok the motivation for the first time in a while wasnt there! And i got to thinking what will it feel like when i have to go out and do 20 miles in worse weather! Scary.   Run turned out ok in the end.

For some reason... i decided to try out an energy gel. For previous 1/2 M i have used sports drinks but as they make me feel sick at around 10 miles i thought i would do the next race on water! Then some thing told me to try a gel because i will have to for marathon at some stage. I didnt find it sickly at the time but after my run i did feel a little sick( nothing that a glass of red wine wouldnt fix)....not sure if this was the gel or the fact that i was pushing it on the last mile.I`m not sure it made much difference to my energy levels!

 Anybody got any views/ ideas on a good gel to use? Maybe i should just stick to water!

Well done vds.... that means you CAN enter Norwich then!!!!

Hope everyone has a good week

Hi all,

Re: Mike's message, i'm Nisha and running for action medical research. 

 Well done on your long run vds, I only went out for 7 miles this morning.  I'm on call so didn't want to venture too far away.  Went out by the canal and not too many people around which was nice.  Don't know if it was the colder weather or the amount of food i've eaten this weekend amidst diwali celebrations but took me longer to get going than usual!

Matty's mum - I have always used the SIS Go Gels and have got on really well with them, but only in the tropical flavour.  The other's make me feel a bit sick so I guess its a case of experimenting and seeing what works for you.

 Now just relaxing with a cup of tea and a copy of runner's world, perfect sunday afternoon! Might have a look at the fetcheveryone website as well....

Hi all

I'm a first timer - pretty nervous but up for the challenge! Got a ballot place and am running for Everyman.

 First run ever of over 6 miles this morning - managed 7.5 - not great but gotta start somewhere!!

Hi all and welcome newcomers!

Been away for a few days holiday in Spain and now back in freeezing Scotland! Tan has disappeared, I have the (man) cold, haven't run for about a week and I generally feel pretty crap!

Got my CLIC Sargent running pack through the post though so that has made me feel a bit better, makes me feel pretty pathetic complaining about my cold when there are so many others worse off than me.

I'm going to try an easy 20 minutes tonight to try and sweat it out, hope to be back in my stride by the weekend!

Nisha / Matty's mum- I use SIS Go Gels too (tropical) only started using them  in the summer but did find they made a difference to me. I didn't like using energy drinks durting a race as they made my mouth all dry and sticky but with the gelsI could wash them down with water. I take one every 6 miles, which works for me but will be trial and error for everyone to see what suits best.

 That said I haven't had one recently as I can't remember the last time I ran 6 miles

Anyway, moan over, keep running everyone!

PS - Cosmic, not decided for sure yet but I think I will be following the RW 16 week plan also so will be good to hear about your progress.

Morning All, After the initial euphoria of getting a place.. I hit a low last week.

Sports Physio recons the calf niggle is in fact a splint (a lot higher up than than usual) so no running for me since last Tuesday.... Diet has been rubbish so now feel sluggish too.

Reading all your enthusiastic notes & chat about gels & drinks & all the fab causes you are running for has fired me up again so I'm going to the gym for a spin and a Sauna tonight. Afterall I am a Marathon Athelete in training & I need to worship at the temple of me!

Nik - Well done 7.5 is very respectable at this stage of the game, well done you!  

Found this 23 week plan that I think I'm going to start on as I'm struggling a bit with this training hiatus. I know some of you are also feeling like you are kicking your heels until you start the 16 week plan & it looks like a pretty good plan & nice slow build.. For anyone that might be interested, have a look at: www.sportstoursinternational.co.uk/.../[b]Marathon[/b]+Training+Plan.pdf   

Bye for now..

p.s. fell asleep at yoga last week. Woke up to find everyone rolling their mats up! Now that is what I call relaxation   

Sorry, just noticed the link won't work so type 23 week Marathon training plan in Google & click on the sportstoursinternational link for the PDF. Good advice in "The Big One" paper that acompanies the plan too.

H 

hey everyone

although my 16 week plan does not kick in for another 5 weeks have started building the miles up now , slowly but surely !! 13 miles done last week in 3 runs with a 5.3 which is the longest i have run for months ! am aiming for 4 runs this week with a total of around 16 miles and a couple of cross training sessions in between . an inspiration for us all should be one of the chilean miners who ran the new york marathon yesterday in 4hours 50 !

Hope you manage to get back training soon Helen

Good to see some new people posted in here as well , think its gonna help us having this thread to encourage each other